TANAP project to boost development of Turkey’s regions:minister
By Sara Rajabova
Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz has said the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project will contribute towards the development of Turkey's regions through which the pipeline will run, Turkish Anadolu agency reported.
Yildiz said on February 27 the TANAP pipeline will create at around 5,000 jobs in 21 Turkish districts that it will pass through and $30 billion will be spent in the next four years mainly for construction activities.
He pointed out that preparations for carrying out preliminary work on the pipeline's construction will begin from 2015.
The TANAP project envisages transporting gas from the Shah Deniz field through Turkey up to the country's border with Europe. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters per year. About six billion cubic meters of gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest to Europe. In the future, the pipeline's capacity can be expanded to 31 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Yildiz also said Turkey will increase its stake in the project by around 30 percent by buying equities from the other stakeholders like British Petroleum-BP, Azerbaijani gas company-Socar and Norway's Statoil.
Currently the share distribution in the TANAP project is conducted as follows: Turkey (20 percent) and Azerbaijan (80 percent). Following the completion of the process on acquiring a stake in the TANAP project by British company BP, the shares in the project will be distributed as follows: SOCAR (operator) - 68 percent , Botas (Turkish state pipeline company) - 20 percent and BP - 12 percent.
Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry told Trend Agency on February 26 that Ankara intends to put a part of its stakes in the TANAP up for privatization.
"The issue of partial privatization of Turkey's share in TANAP has already been submitted to the Turkish Cabinet of Ministers," the ministry said. It said it is expected that this issue will be clarified in the coming weeks.
TANAP shareholders plan to lay the pipeline's foundation in the second quarter of 2014 and to commission it in 2018. TANAP project's cost is estimated at $10 billion to $11 billion.
On December 17, 2013 a final investment decision was made on the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz offshore gas and condensate field's development. The gas from the field will first go to the European market.
Partners operating for Shah Deniz field's development, which has reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, include State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) with a share of 16.7 percent, British BP (28,8 percent), Norwegian Statoil (15.5 percent), Iranian NICO (10 percent), French Total (10 percent), Russian Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (nine percent).